Abstract

As the health care industry enters the era of knowledge management it must place security at the foundation of the transition. Risks are pervasive to every aspect of information and knowledge management. Without secure practices that seek to avoid or mitigate the effects of these risks, how can health care organisations ensure that knowledge is captured, stored, distributed, used, destroyed and restored securely? In an age where risks and security threats are ever-increasing, secure knowledge management is an essential business practice. The cost of security breaches in a health care context can range from the unauthorized access of confidential information to the potential loss or unauthorized modification of patient information leading to patient injury. In this chapter the authors highlight different approaches to minimising these risks, based on the concepts of authentication, authorization, data integrity, availability and confidentiality.